Privacy Policy

TrustedPros Inc. (“TPI”) PRIVACY POLICY effective February 2, 2017

This privacy policy applies to any information collected or otherwise obtained on or through the website located at https://www.trustedpros.ca (the “Website”) and, unless otherwise specified, any other websites controlled or operated by TPI, which are accessible through the Website.

In regard to businesses:

This privacy policy only applies to the extent we collect or otherwise obtain personal information about an individual. Accordingly, this privacy policy does not apply to business information or information about businesses. That said, this privacy policy MAY apply in some respects and to some extent if you are an individual carrying on business (such as a sole proprietor) or to the extent you provide personal (as opposed to business information) or to the extent you access this website through your home computer.

This privacy policy is effective as of the date set forth above. Personal information provided or collected prior to the above effective date shall be subject to the privacy policy in effect at the time such personal information was provided or collected.

Titles and headings are provided for general reference and ease of use only, as information may be covered in more than one heading or under other headings.

If you have questions or concerns regarding this privacy policy, any personal information about you in our possession or under our control or any of our practices with respect to personal information, please contact TPI's privacy officer at privacy@trustedpros.ca.

I. Collection of Personal Information

TPI is committed to protecting your privacy. Unless expressly provided, personal information collected is for the sole purpose of the operation of this Website and providing the services offered through or in conjunction with this Website (collectively, the “Services”).

Registration

Personal information is collected in conjunction with the creation of your account for the Website, namely your name, e-mail address, city and province (or territory) of residence, postal code and confirmation that you have reached the age of majority in the jurisdiction in which you reside. You may also choose to provide us with a telephone number. Please note that to the extent you provide us with a business address and/or business e-mail address , such information is not considered as being personal information and is therefore not subject to this privacy policy.

Financial Information

We do not collect any personal information of a financial nature about individuals, except if an individual uses a personal credit card in conjunction with the purchase of a business membership. In such cases, your name, credit card number, expiration date and security code will be collected by TPI for the sole purpose of transmitting same to our payment gateway provider. Your credit card information is not retained by TPI. Other than as previously described, we do not retain any such personal information of a financial nature about individuals.

Website and Services

Personal information may also be collected in conjunction with your access and use of the Website and Services. For example, if you upload or post content on the Website (such as a job listing, request for information, message, post, business profile, testimonial, personal anecdote, success story, a rating, a ranking, portfolio, advertisement, referral, evaluation, review, complaint, pictures, business documents, technical documents or rebuttal [collectively, “Content”]), such Content will be associated to your account and any personal information contained in such Content will be accessible to other users of the Website.

TPI may also request disclosure of certain materials to validate your identify and the subject matter of any Content. This may include copies of government issued identification, contractual documentation, invoices, certificates of insurance, vendor permits, business licenses and the like.

This Website uses cookies. A cookie is a piece of data tied to information about the user and stored on the user's computer. This Website uses both session cookies, which terminate when you close your browser, and persistent cookies, which remain on your computer until manually deleted.

By setting a persistent cookie, we allow you not to have to log in with a password more than once, thereby saving time while accessing the Website. If you reject these cookies, you may still access and use the Website but your experience and/or access may be limited in some areas of the Website.

TPI may use third-party advertising companies to serve ads on its behalf and to monitor certain pages of the Website for the purpose of reporting web traffic, statistics, advertisement “click-throughs”, and/or other activities on our site. These third party service providers may employ cookies and action tags (also known as single pixel gifs or web beacons) to measure advertising effectiveness. Any information that these third parties collect via cookies and action tags is completely anonymous.

As is the case with most other websites, personal information may also be collected by TPI with respect to your system and your specific access to and use of the Website and Services. TPI may monitor your use of the Website and Services and may create records of your use of the Website and Services.

The Website allows third parties to post messages and other content and, although our terms and conditions of use prohibit anyone from posting any personal information about someone else (except where such personal information also constitutes business information), it is possible that a third party may post personal information about you, in contravention with such terms and conditions. Any such personal information will be promptly removed upon us discovering its existence on the Website. If you come across any such personal information on the Website, please contact our privacy officer by e-mail at privacy@trustedpros.ca, and such personal information will be promptly removed.

II. Use of Personal Information

As indicated above, we will use personal information obtained for the purposes of operating the Website and providing the Services. This includes us communicating with you with respect to your use of the Website, your use of Services (including, for example, obtaining clarification or confirmation of Services requested and information submitted in conjunction with the obtaining of such Services), your account and responding to inquiries made by you. This also includes allowing you to make post or upload Content in certain sections of the Website (such as job requests, personal anecdotes, testimonials, success stories, evaluations of contractors and suppliers, ratings, rankings, details of specific projects, , complaints, message board posts, business profiles, portfolios, advertisements, referrals, and rebuttals to a testimonial, rating or review). You understand and agree that to the extent you include personal information in posted or uploaded Content such personal information will be posted on the Website and will be accessible to other users of the Website.

Likewise, if you are a business member and provide information about yourself in a listing, profile or post, such personal information will be accessible to other users of the Website. As indicated above, users of the Website may post content about business members and other contractors and service providers. Where such a contractor or services provider is an individual, such content may include personal information. Although such personal information may be posted on the Website, any personal information of a non-business nature will be deleted from the Website when we become aware of its existence.

The Website offers matching services in terms of job requests and contractors and suppliers. To the extent a user posts a job request, the Services will attempt to match such job request to contractors and suppliers. To the extent matches are found, the user’s name will be provided to those matching contractors and suppliers and these will have the ability to communicate with the user by e-mail by completing a webform on the Site. Likewise, the businesses’ name and a link to their respective profile will be provided to the user in question and, potentially, relevant suppliers.

For businesses:

We may send businesses offers through email or otherwise which we deem relevant to their trade, line of business or particular circumstances. Businesses may at any time opt out from receiving future offers by clicking on the opt-out hyperlink shown in such e-mail, at which time they will promptly be removed from the relevant distribution list.

If a business signs up for our free membership program or signs up for our premium (paid) membership service, such business will receive multiple communications from us with respect to and in conjunction with the operation Website and the delivery of Services. Other ways we contact members of our service professional network are via fax, and/or cell text (SMS) messaging. Members of our service professional network (or prospective members enrolled in a Free Trial) can designate and opt-in on our Website or by contacting customer service to receive leads in one or more of these formats.

Similarly, we may from time to time contact you via e-mail about Services or other features of the Website or send you updates about the Website and the Services, including, newsletters and bulletins. We may also from time to time contact you via e-mail about products and services of members of the Website or other third parties. You may at any time opt out from receiving future communications by clicking on the opt-out hyperlink shown in such e-mail, at which time you will promptly be removed from the relevant distribution list.

Finally, collected information regarding access and usage of the Website and Services is tied to the users’ personally identifiable information to improve the performance, security, content and features of the Website and delivery of Services (including, your accessing and use of the Website and Services), and to modify and/or expand Website functionality and nature and scope of Services. Such information is also used to analyze trends, administer the Website, track user's movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use.

Users’ profile information is also used to tailor, ease, improve, facilitate and accelerate a user's access and use of the Website and Services (e.g. by remembering user preferences and applying these to subsequent visits).

On rare occasions, TPI may send out strictly service related e-mail announcements. These communications are not promotional in nature. For instance, if TPI’s service is temporarily suspended on account of maintenance we might send users an e-mail advising them of this. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account which will prevent future communications of such sort.

III. Modification of Personal Information

To the extent your personal information has changed or that our records are otherwise not accurate with respect to your personal information, please contact our privacy officer by e-mail at privacy@trustedpros.ca. We will endeavour to update your personal information in a timely manner.

TPI may paraphrase, summarize, aggregate or compile feedback, ratings, reviews, rebuttals, complaints, testimonials and/or other Content and may edit these to correct typos, spelling and grammatical errors as well as obvious mistakes in terms of objective facts.

To the extent permitted by applicable laws, TPI reserves the right to deny requests to remove any feedback, ratings, reviews, pictures, complaints, rebuttals, testimonials and/or other Content from the Website. TPI also reserves the right to deny requests to remove profile information associated with any business and any association between such profile and any user feedback, ratings, reviews, complaints, referrals and/or testimonials and/or other Content.

For businesses:

Members of our service professional network (or prospective members enrolled in a free trial) can designate which bulletins and communications they wish to receive and opt-in, opt-out or otherwise modify any prior selection on our Website or by contacting customer service to receive leads in one or more of these formats.

IV. Disclosure of Personal Information

When you submit information to TPI, you authorize us to share this information with our service providers. TPI shall ensure that any third party to whom it discloses your personal information has signed a contract which obligates such third party to safeguard your personal information, adhere to the same terms and conditions as those contained in this privacy policy and otherwise comply with applicable laws.

Use certain Services and features of the Website will result in the disclosure of personal information. For example, if you choose to select a contractor for a job posting or if you respond to a contractor who has indicated interest in a job posting, such contractor will receive your name and contact information. Likewise, if a you carry on business in your personal capacity or as a sole proprietorship and chooses to respond to a project listing or if you contact a supplier who has also been matched with respect to a project listing, the user who posted the project listing and any supplier (as the case may be) will receive the contact name and contact information associated with your business.

As previously indicated, postings made by you on the Website or through use of a Service will be accessible to other users of the Website. To the extent such postings contain personal information, such personal information will be communicated to users who access such posting.

Please note that if you post a review, complaint, testimonial, rating, ranking, comment or other Content about a business member of the Website or any other contractor or service provider, such third party may post a reply or a rebuttal and such reply or rebuttal will be associated with your account and your original posting. If your posting includes personal information, it will be associated with such third party content.

TPI may create and share aggregated activity or statistical information with partners, advertisers or others, but such information will not contain personally identifiable information.

V. Safeguarding of Personal Information

Though we strive to preserve user privacy, due to the inherent nature of the Internet, we cannot ensure that all of your private communications and other personal information will always remain confidential. You acknowledge and understand that the Internet is a public network and that communications on or through the Internet may be intercepted, misdirected, altered and/or deleted. Likewise, e-mails and accounts may be spoofed and individuals impersonated. Care should therefore be taken prior to disclosing personal information on or through the Website or to any users or purported users of the Website.

Likewise, we may disclose personal information when required by law (including by court order or in conjunction with police investigations or legal proceedings), when we have a belief that such action is necessary or advisable to comply with applicable laws, or when we believe that a user is violating the law, is a threat to others or himself/herself or is in personal danger.

VI. Mergers/Acquisitions/Restructuring

In the event TPI (or any of its business units) is bought, sold, restructured or merges with another entity, users' personal information will, in most instances, be part of such transaction. TPI may disclose your personal information to such entities and their advisors, provide it first ensures that each of them sign a non-disclosure agreement safeguarding your personal information and preventing them from making any use of the information outside of such proposed transaction or restructuring and any subsequent operation of TPI’s business.

VII. Choice/Opt-in/Opt-out

Our users are given the opportunity to 'opt-in' in terms of having their information used for purposes not directly related to the operation of the Website and delivery of Services they have requested. Such opt-in option is usually provided at the time of collection and/or in subsequent communications to the user. For example, our service request form has an 'opt-in' mechanism allowing users who submit a service request to elect to receive marketing material.

If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter and promotional communications, you may opt-out of receiving these communications by selecting the opt-out hyperlink in the relevant email or by emailing us at privacy@trustedpros.ca.

You will be notified and your consent obtained when personal information collected through use of the Website is to be communicated to a third party (excluding our affiliates, service providers, or agents). We do this so our users can make an informed choice as to whether or not they should proceed with services that require an outside party.

VIII. Links and Integrated Partnerships

This Website contains links from and to other websites. Please be aware that this privacy policy does not apply to such websites and that personal information you disclose or that may otherwise be collected from you may not be subject to the same terms and conditions as those that apply with respect to TPI and the Website. TPI is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other websites. We encourage you to be aware of this when you leave our Website and to read the privacy statements or policies of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy policy applies solely to information collected by TPI in conjunction with the operation of the Website and delivery of Services.

IX. Location of Storage Facilities

This Website is hosted from facilities located exclusively within the province of Ontario, Canada. Your personal information may, however, be stored outside of the Province of Ontario to the extent we use service providers located outside of Ontario. You acknowledge and understand that the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (Canada) may apply and otherwise affect the collection, use, disclosure, retention and destruction of your personal information. Additional privacy legislation may also apply depending on the location of our service providers, our computer facilities or those of our service providers.

By creating an Account, and/or by accessing and using this Website and any service offered by or through this Website, you hereby consent and agree to the practices described in this privacy policy, including, without limitation, the collection, use, disclosure, retention, storage and destruction practices relating to your personal information. Without limitation to the foregoing, you also agree to be bound by this Privacy Policy.

Previous versions of TrustedPros Inc. Privacy Policy can be found here.